OSU Extension's "Barn Again in Ohio" program provides educational opportunities, including barn workshops, speakers, and fact sheets, for people to learn more about their barns and other historical agricultural structures. This can entail preservation, rehabilitation, and/or repurposing older barns for new uses. Please contact your local OSU extension agent if you are interested in having us bring a barn workshop to your county. Attached below are our three OSUE factsheets dealing with barn topics, including one on economic incentives for rehabilitating your barn and another on working with barn contractors:
- Your Old Barn I: Reasons for Rehabilitation
- Your Old Barn II: Economic Incentives and Preservation Tools
- Your Old Barn III: Hiring a Contractor
OSUE's barn program is fortunate to partner with two other state-wide barn programs in Ohio:
- The Ohio Historical Preservation Office is a state agency with expertise on national register, economic incentives, and building preservation issues. Their phone number is 614-298-2000 and their webpage is: https://www.ohiohistory.org/preserve/state-historic-preservation-office/hplocal/historic-barns-in-ohio
- Friends of Ohio Barns is our state-wide not-for-profit organization which is a grass-roots network of barn owners and builders. You can visit their webpage at: http://www.friendsofohiobarns.org/index.php. They publish an excellent newsletter and sponsor the annual Ohio Barn Conference (OBC). It is held in a different location each spring. Please visit their webpage for details and registration materials.
Other helpful webpages on barn rehabilitation include:
- The National Barn Alliance
- National Trust for Historic Preservation's BARN AGAIN! Program
- Four sample National Register nominations for Ohio farms
- Univ. of Wisconsin - Extension barn website
- Michigan Barn Preservation Network
- Timber Framers Guild
- The Barn Journal
- National Park Service's preservation brief on historic barns
- National Park Service information on federal preservation tax credits
- "The Barn, a Symbol of Ohio" by Allen Noble and Rudy Christian